Case Study

CH2M Improves Water Management for

Saipan with Sierra Wireless Gateways
A Sierra Wireless Remote Monitoring Solution
CUSTOMER CRITICAL CHALLENGE

Despite abundant rainfall, Saipans water supply is insufficient to serve the needs
of residents due to 70% non-revenue water. Saipan Commonwealth Utilities
Corporation (CUC) asked CH2M for help to improve monitoring of the water
system and to improve operational efficiencies. CUC had no water monitoring
system in place to help them identify problems.
SOLUTION

CH2M provided an integrated technology solution with a Schneider Electric

programmable logical controller and Sierra Wireless gateways to install a remotely
manageable monitoring solution for CUC.
BENEFITS

CUC can now monitor water operations in the pilot area of their system and address
problems immediately.
Being able to remotely monitor the system saves sending field crews to investigate
and is helping to reduce the amount of water lost.

BACKGROUND

CH2M is a global engineering firm

that provides consulting, design,
construction and operations services
for corporations and federal, state and
local governments. The company is
privately held by its 26,000 employees.

We work with many partners to deliver the engineering

services we provide, and weve worked with Sierra Wireless
on similar projects in Dallas and Fort Worth. The reason we
keep choosing their gateways is because they truly are the
most rugged weve seen, and we can rely on them. We can
deploy our integrated systems quickly, and with confidence
that communication approach using Sierra Wireless
technology will work in any environment.
Ken Thompson
Deputy Director
Intelligent Water Systems

Business Challenge
Located 120 miles north of Guam, Saipan is the largest of the Northern Mariana
Islands, the most westerly territory of the United States. With a population of over
40,000, the island boasts sandy beaches, an offshore coral reef and Mount Tapochau,
a limestone covered mountain. The islands primary source of revenue in the past was
associated with the garment business, but recently has primarily come from tourism.
Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC) is a state government corporation that
operates the electric power, water and wastewater services on the three main islands
of the Commonwealth Saipan, Tinian and Rota. At the time, CUC had few controls in
the system and had no means of monitoring or explaining water loss and operational
inefficiencies. CUC recognized they needed a plan and some real-time controls if they
were going to be able to serve the populations needs for fresh water. And as CUC does
not have any SCADA communications system in place on Saipan, they recognized the
benefit of deploying a cellular based communications solution.

Sierra Wireless AirLink Solution

CUC contracted CH2M, a global engineering company, to help them reduce water
losses and improve the efficiency of their operations on the island. CH2M proposed a
pilot project where they would isolate and demonstrate how water monitoring could
reduce water loss or non-revenue water.
CH2M installed programmable logic controllers in an isolated section of thewater
supply network, at 16 wells, 1 pump station and 2 reservoirs. The PLCs are
programmed to measure multiple operational parameters at each facility, and Sierra
Wireless gateways were installed alongside the PLCs to send information from the
PLCs back to a human machine interface (HMI). The gateways send information over
the LTE cellular network back to a host interface, enabling CUC to understand how
water is flowing through the system and when problems are occurring in near
real time.

2 of 3

Results
The installation was 80 % completed in a week in July 2015 and everything was
operational. Unfortunately, a typhoon hit the island later that month, and destroyed
much of the infrastructure. This is now being rebuilt, and will be fully up and running
by May, 2016. Once it is, its expected that CH2M will expand beyond the pilot project
to install similar infrastructure across the entire island for the water system and
ultimately for the entire wastewater system.
The Typhoon has taken out more than 1000 power poles, right at their roots, flooded
the main power plant, and damaged many of the water system components, so the
rebuild has been time-consuming. But the communications infrastructure has stayed
up and running, and we are now able to resume normal operations shortly, said John
Riegel, Director of Engineering, CUC.

About Sierra Wireless

Sierra Wireless is building the Internet of Things with intelligent wireless solutions that empower organizations to innovate in the
connected world. We offer the industrys most comprehensive portfolio of 2G, 3G, and 4G embedded modules and gateways,
seamlessly integrated with our secure cloud and connectivity services. OEMs and enterprises worldwide trust our innovative
solutions to get their connected products and services to market faster. Sierra Wireless has more than 950 employees globally and
operates R&D centers in North America, Europe, and Asia.
For more information, visit www.sierrawireless.com.
Sierra Wireless, the Sierra Wireless logo, AirLink, and the red wave design are trademarks of Sierra Wireless. Other registered
trademarks that appear on this brochure are the property of the respective owners. 2015 Sierra Wireless, Inc. 2016.05.16